Here’s a bizarre one.  The New York Times reports of a Nevada couple who were so busy playing Dungeons and Dragons that their two children, ages 11 and 22 months, were near starvation.  The couple was charged with neglect (and represented by a public defender, apparently unable to use their D&D credits to retain counsel).

Is this just another new, high tech excuse for child neglect?  Ann Althouse thinks so.  While it is easy to simply toss all the evil people into the same hole, my take is that this reflects a somewhat different issue.

Granted, the D&D addiction excuse is a novel twist, substituting computer games for and old staple like heroin, but that’s the lawyer talking, not the defendants.  My approach is a bit more holistic.  The fact that the couple was so enthralled with D&D, rather than heroin, is a more significant part of the mix than may be realized at first blush.  These are children, playing children’s games, having children.

Stunted adolescence (or basic immaturity) is an epidemic.  Some never leave home.  Some can’t get their hands out of Mommy or Daddy’s wallet.  Some can’t figure out that there comes a time when they put away their toys.  This couple had two babies.  How did they manage to find the time?  Well, sex is another adolescence game.  Pregnancy as well.  The bodies may be ready (owing to the prolonged period of time needed for humans to mutate and rid themselves of unnecessary body parts), but the minds are ill-prepared. 

Anyone who has tried to hire a young lawyer should have a pretty good feel for the fact that it takes kids a lot longer to grow up these days.  And these are the mature kids, we’re talking about.  In all likelihood, the parents of there perpetual teeny-boppers aren’t all that mature either.  Obviously, they didn’t have much impact on the “making babies” part of their life.

So this is what comes of children having children.  That is the real defense.  And unfortunately, the verdict reached by two starving children is guilty.